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This is the latest bizarre candidate to be named as Lord Lucan - even though he is 10 years younger and five inches shorter than the missing earl.

Locals living in a remote New Zealand town reckon the eccentric English ex-pat, who lives in a Land Rover with a pet possum named Redfern, a goat called Camilla and a cat, is the notorious fugitive.

They say he bears a striking resemblance to the aristocrat, has his upper-class accent and military bearing and arrived out of the blue in 1974 - the year Lucan went missing after the murder of his children's nanny.

But yesterday the dishevelled loner insisted his name was Roger Woodgate and pointed out that, at 62, he was a decade younger that Lucan. He added: "Oh, and I'm five inches shorter."

Roger, who claimed he is an ex-MoD photographer, said he was bemused by the locals' gossip.

He added: "I saw a cop in the gas station and I asked, 'You going to arrest me?' I was winding him up a bit. And he said, 'No, no, no'." One TV company that heard the rumours enlisted the help of retired Scotland Yard detective Sidney Ball, - who now lives in New Zealand - to check up on Roger.

The two men met last week. Roger said: "He told me that I was not Lord Lucan. I said, 'I know that'."

Richard Bingham, the 7th Earl of Lucan, vanished 33 years ago after nanny Sandra Rivett was found murdered at the London home of his estranged wife Veronica.

His blood-soaked car was later found abandoned at Newhaven ferry port in East Sussex.

There have been at least 70 alleged sightings in places as diverse as Mozambique, Australia, India, America, Ireland, South Africa and Madagascar. He was officially declared dead by the High Court in 1999.

Lucan's friend John As pin all believed he killed the nanny by accident, mistaking her for his wife - then committed suicide in remorse by sinking his boat in the Channel.

#14,709 Value of Lucan's estate when he was declared dead in 1999. His title can't be inherited by his son, George Bingham, as no death certificate has yet been issued